Football: Ivy League Week 2 Preview

Editor's Note- Every week, we here at WHRB will take a look back at last week's results and this week's schedule. This week our weekly preview comes to you from our own Zak Kline, who through no fault of his own (and through a lot of fault of mine) cannot post on the blog yet. -BR

Ivy League Week 2
by Zak Kline

Friday, September 23, 2011

Brown (1-0) at Harvard (0-1)
Harvard opens its home schedule with a Friday night game. The Crimson are 4-0 under the lights since installing them in 2007. The Crimson’s season started with a sloppy 30-22 loss at Holy Cross last Saturday. The Brown Bears opened their 2011 season with a 21-20 win over Stony Brook. Stony Brook had a 55-yard FG attempt come up short in the last minute. Senior QB Kyle Newhall-Caballero hit on 22 of 37 passes for 292 yards and three touchdowns. For his efforts, he won the weekly New England Football Writers’ Gridiron Club of Greater Boston Gold Helmet Award, which decision was in turn nominated for the WHRB Longest Combined Name of Award Giver and Recipient Award.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Cornell (1-0) at Yale (1-0)
Yale started 2011 with a 37-27 win over Georgetown, as Patrick Witt threw for 280 yards and Mordecai Cargill ran for 92 yards on just 15 carries. Cornell also opened with a victory, beating Bucknell on the strength of 323 yards from QB Jeff Mathews and a stingy 1.8 yards/carry allowed on defense. But really, can anything be called a victory if you have to go home to Ithaca or New Haven afterwards?

Albany (0-2) at Columbia (0-1)
The Great Danes haven’t stopped anyone through two games, allowing almost 480 yards rushing and another 410 through the air. Sean Brackett, named to the All-Ivy first team last year, did not have his best day for the Lions against Fordham, completing fewer than 50% of his passes with two touchdowns and two picks. That line will probably improve this week.

Dartmouth (1-0) at Sacred Heart (0-2)
Sacred Heart’s offense has accumulated 13 points through two games. Their only touchdown came after a Marist muffed punt gave the Pioneers a red zone opportunity in Week 1. They’re not very good. Dartmouth, meanwhile, opened with a lopsided win over Colgate. All-Everything running back Nick Schwieger got his Ivy League MVP reelection campaign off to a good start, notching 175 yards on 8.8 per rush.

Bucknell (2-1) at Princeton (0-1)
The Bison get another crack at an Ivy opponent after being downed by Cornell. Bucknell’s most notable feature is that my computer’s spell-checker doesn’t recognize the word “Bucknell”. Princeton lost by twelve to Lehigh, letting Mountain Hawk QB Chris Lum throw for 384 yards and 4 TDs. The Tigers were able to grind out 180 yards rushing, which success they’ll need to duplicate if their secondary takes another day off.

Penn (0-1) at Villanova (0-3)
Villanova has long been mentioned as a possible football addition to the Big East, where most of the Wildcats’ other programs already play. The football Wildcats have been demonstrating they could be competitive in a “BCS Conference” by losing to Temple (by 35), Towson (by 21) and Monmouth (NJ) (by 11). The Quakers, meanwhile, started the year by getting slapped around by Lafayette, 37-12. Reigning co-Ivy first-team QB Billy Ragone had an awful day, finishing 8-for-23 with 91 yards and two interceptions. He will have to be better if Penn wants to beat Villanova for the first time in 100 years.